On Thursday 12 July, 54 members came together from far and wide to assemble at the Rudolfshütte for the celebration of the Club's 70th Anniversary, with three members travelling from as far as Chicago and three travelling from Cape Town reflecting our now wider appeal.
On the Friday the majority of the members set off in good weather to make the circular tour of the Weißsee hydro reservoir, following the signs for the very scenirc Panoramaweg. Later they availed themselves of the hotel's plush pool, sauna and spa facilities.
Group photo on a wet Sunday morning
Saturday was designated big mountain day with several groups making ascents of the Stubacher Sonnblick 3089m and the Granat-Spitze 3086m, not so much to do with granite but more to do with mining speculators looking for Garnet? Rewarded by numerous ascents of local peaks, on Saturday evening the group gathered for the Gala Dinner hosting our principal guests from Alpenvereinshaus with Gabi Schlechter from the Alpenverein-Akademie, Monika Melcher from Public Relations and Petra Einberger from the Generalsekretariat.
After dinner, President Allan Hartley gave an informal talk recalling how our Club was formed in the aftermath of the Second World War when on 27th July 1948 Major Walter Ingham came out of a meeting in Innsbruck with Dr Schmidt Wellenburg, the then General Secretary clutching a letter establishing Sektion England as it was then called. ln recognition of this, Christina Crowther daughter of founding member Henry Crowther and our First President was asked to join the floor with him. This was followed by recognition of our present day status by asking Club stalwarts Janet Britnell representing our current Board of Directors and Alex Gymer representing the Alpine Team to join the group. All were thanked by the President for their continued support and dedication with applause of appreciation from the membership as a whole.
Rudofshütte on Weißee
For the group photo-shoot on Sunday morning, the weather didn't co-operate and it rained as the group gathered outside the hut in the wet. The weather soon cleared, and more peaks such as Tauernkogel 2683m and Medalzkopf 2760n were climbed by some.
For Monday the sun shone, but now it was time for the group to disband and go their separate ways, but I am confident that everyone had a really jolly good time. Berg Heil!
Return to the top of this page, or to the complete Index, or to this section's Index.